How many organisms in an inch of soil?

“The ecstatic skin of the Earth”- description of soil in William Hogan’s book Dirt!

One inch of ‘dirt’ contains more than a billion living organisms: healthy soil is literally the foundation of life, even though most of us don’t think of it very much.

The sacred connection between soil, life and faith was the theme of this year’s 15th annual Festival of Faiths at Louisville, Kentucky, USA.

A stellar line-up of speakers – including: Kentucky writer Wendell Berry, a founding parent of American spiritual ecology; the Soil Association’s Patrick Holden; ARC’s Martin Palmer, American food activist Will Allen; Wes Jackson, founder of the Land Institute – emphasised repeatedly over the seven-day festival that soil is key, both to our relationship with the land and to God.

William Hogan’s new book Dirt! was celebrated at the Sacred Soil Festival of Faiths, along with the film based on it, entitled, appropriately enough, Dirt! The Movie.

The meeting was also a welcome occasion for the second announcement of ARC’s Faith in Food programme after a very successful launch in New York with a workshop a couple of days before.. The website and more details will be announced soon. Link here for more details.